Topic: fatalism and its debunking
Oedipus the King is fatalistic, essentially, and this is an area of the play which makes me uncomfortable. The idea of fate is that something or a set of somethings is “destined” to happen, as by the force of the stars or the energy and realism of an oracle. While there does seem to be a clearer path for most of us among a couple or three choices, most modern people would not subscribe to the idea that what we are going to be has little to do with the areas of greatest interest and greatest potential for future long-term employment. The idea of Oedipus seems built on oracles and fate and this viewpoint detracts from the reliability or truth of the insights.
What is so wrong with fate? Oedipus says, “ . . . let my destiny come and take me on its way!”)1598. This is hardly an ancient thought alone. Today I hear of people who expect a certain outcome because “it is destined” but my experience, it is attitude and wisdom affecting the outcome entirely. We create our own destiny. “It” is not being done to us or for us. In this way one becomes completely intolerant of whiny and noisy types who insist that some people are “destined” to fill a certain role. Preparing with our own thinking and hard work, instead of adhering the pre-fab agreements of oracles seems more honest to me.
Oedipus the King is a study in the fall of royal men—and partly a study in destiny. But really I think it is a study in the process of verifying and checking—the process of original thinking. Oedipus is wrought and over-wrought because he slowly bumps into the truth of his circumstance. The value of Oedipus is not that he is a particularly great king, though, so much as he finally (and tragically) takes full responsibility for his experience—he verifies and cheks. He needed to have talked back to the circumstances because the oracle mentality is the same problem as too much state intervention on people’s lives. When characters or real persons take responsibility for what they are facing, the whole problem changes. When characters or people just lie back and expect “something” to happen they are acquiescing to the idea of passivity, and the “oracle” mentality takes place.
I suppose that the whole of mythology gave the ancients the courage to live their days. It is clear that they were a bright group. The fairy tale element—mythology—seems as good an explanation as many things. But it is not to be confused with destiny, which can never do anything but fail. We make our own destiny. This is not an idea which can be sustained. Just like fate itself.
